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As it is coming up to conference time again, I was reading an article about public speaking so I could remind myself of the things I should be doing. When I started thinking about it I realized that whether you talking to two people across a tasting bar or in any other retail establishment or whether you are talking to 100 people in a seminar it’s still public speaking. So here are a few tips that I always try to keep in mind when I am speaking.

People remember how they felt when someone is speaking to them. They probably won’t remember the words you used but they will remember how they felt. You can create emotions by telling stories or by putting yourself in their shoes. Let them know there was a time when you were not the expert and how you felt at that time.

Rather than giving your audience a lot of facts (unless, of course, that is what they want – in which case they will usually keep asking you questions), find out what your audience is looking for and help them to understand how you can deliver what it is they want.

Never underestimate people’s willingness to buy so they can impress their friends. What I mean by that is give them a story they can take home with them. Something in the stories they tell may encourage their friends to visit you or use your products. It doesn’t help if they are using your products when they are telling the story.

Give your audience some tips that will make their experience with your products even more special. Present the guests with information related to your topic that is of benefit to them.

Return to the main points of your presentation so that the audience will retain the important things you are telling them. If you present a lot of information it’s hard to remember so key points should be mentioned three times while you are speaking.

Relax when you are talking to strangers. If you are comfortable, they will be too.

A tip of the glass from me to you!

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The beginning of the year is a good time to review your customer service and your customer retention. How did you do at holding on to customers in the past year? Who has dropped off the radar and why? Most managers know how many customers they gained over the past year, though less of them know how many customers they lost or why they lost these customers.

If your business has a slow time, those involved in customer service can spend this slower season going through customer records, finding out who has gone AWOL and picking up the phone to find out why. There are lots of reasons for customers to stop buying and not all of them have anything to do with your business or products. If customers have dropped away for personal reasons (illness, a lost job or a move for example) a phone call to tell them that you haven’t seen them for a while and hope everything is okay will make them feel appreciated and missed. That way, when their lives are back to normal, they will be back.

If the reason they have left you is because of a bad experience, the sooner you find out about it the better. Especially as 95% of consumers talk about poor customer service experiences with other people, though they probably won’t tell you.

The winter is also a good time to make changes that might be necessary or improve the experience you provide to guests and customers. Get together with key staff and define the ideal experience that you would like to deliver to your customers and guests. Give your employees the opportunity to present their ideas of how things can be improved. When employees have a hand in shaping the experience they are much more likely to follow the template that is created for the experience.

Once you have a new template for the customer experience, put in place processes that will promote the change. Train some of your employees to be mentors so that when you hire new staff in the spring, there is someone they can turn to for help and guidance if you are not available.

This work during the winter will pay off in increased sales and greater customer satisfaction come the busy season.

Instagram has been around since October 2010 and in only seven years it has increased its users to 700 million, which is more than twice the size of Twitter. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and judging from the pictures I have found on Instagram I would say that is definitely true, especially for wineries. Seeing a great bottle of wine, beautiful vineyard or a winery tasting room can increase the desire to visit. Just a quick note: when you take a picture of your tasting room, make sure there are people in it. I see many pictures of tasting rooms that are completely empty, which makes me wonder how popular the winery is.

It’s simple to add pictures to Instagram, though remember that if you can create unique or uncommon pictures and make the description of your post different from that of other companies in your industry, viewers are much more likely to pay attention to your business. There are people involved in every business and viewers are interested in the people behind the brand. Pictures of people tend to attract attention, whether they are customers or employees. A quick reminder: ask permission before using pictures of individuals.

Use different types of posts. You can go from serious to comic, depending on the situation. Use an emoji or a cartoon on occasion, if it fits in with what you want to get across to viewers. People like to laugh. It’s a serious world a lot of the time and giving people the opportunity to laugh can create a bond between them and the company.

Certainly, you can promote buying through Instagram in different ways, some subtle and some not so subtle. Continually pitching may push people away from the posts, so break up the sales pitches with interesting, personal, or funny posts.

Instagram is a great tool and used properly can be a boon to your business.

A tip of the glass from me to you!

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I have been doing research lately on how to genuinely charm and engage customers. For those of us who serve the public, being charming to our customers should be at the top of the list. Shown below are some of the ideas.

Interest in People: During the time the customer is with you put them in the spotlight by showing an interest in what they are saying, why they came into your business, and what you can do to help them.

The first thing when dealing with a customer is to introduce yourself and ask for their names. By giving someone your name, you have shown a willingness to have a more personal relationship with these customers, even if it is only for twenty minutes. When people give you information, follow up with an open-ended question to find out more.

Authenticity: It’s usually easy to tell when someone is not being authentic. If you have no interest in your customers they will recognize it on some level. Even if you are pretending that you do. If you love what you do it will come through to the customers. If you don’t love what you do, it may be a good idea to find something that you enjoy more.

Individual Experiences: Vary your interaction with each customer and focus on things that are most important to them. To achieve that, it’s vital that you start the engagement by finding out his/her wants and needs. You should be looking not only to make a customer but also to make a friend.

Body Language: Your body language is just as important as the words you speak. A smile makes a difference, especially if you smile at a customer s/he will usually smile back at you. That makes them feel good and should make you feel good too. Be open in your body language, arms should not be crossed and your hands should be open. Make eye contact with the person to whom you are speaking.

Belief in the Product: If you can speak with and exude confidence about the products or services that you sell, you are much more likely to make the sale. This does not necessarily mean overwhelming people with facts, but letting customers know the things that are most likely to interest and influence them.

All these things will lead to a better experience for your customers and a better experience for you.

A tip of the glass from me to you!

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Another year is almost upon us. By next week it will be 2018. Hard to believe but here it’s time again for your New Year’s resolutions. This year make it a little easier on yourself by putting in at least one resolution that you absolutely know that you can accomplish.

One way to accomplish your goals is to give yourself some wiggle room. For instance, instead of saying I am going to completely stop doing something that is an ingrained habit, I plan on doing it less.

Here are a few resolutions that are on my list that you might also want to consider:

Allow 10 Minutes Each Day to Organize

My desk seems to have a mind of its own and, before I know, it the desk is full of miscellaneous pieces of paper. My resolution is to take 10 minutes each day to clean up the papers that are all over my desk from the day before.

Allow yourself the choice of when you are going to clean up your desk. I find it easier to clean up my desk first thing in the morning rather than in the evening. Choosing the time when I will do it makes it easier for me.

Cut Down on Procrastination

There are things that we have to do that we put off for days and then end up doing at the last minute. If my deadline is two weeks away, what I find helpful is to split big tasks into smaller sections.

Allow yourself the time to do one section, shelve the project until the next day then finish section two. I make sure I have a day at the end to double-check my work before the project is considered finished.

Reward Yourself

Allow yourself some small rewards when you accomplish a goal. I love to read so when I have finished something I allow myself to read an article I am interested in. Or I take a five or ten-minute walk. Both these things give me the break I need to put one thing behind me before I move on to the next.

When we are creating our New Year’s resolutions it’s important to take into consideration how likely we are to be able to keep them. Choose resolutions and structure them so you have a good chance of succeeding. This way, by March you can feel proud of what you have accomplished.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A tip of the glass from me to you!

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These days it is important to business to have new and interesting marketing content, telling customers and potential customers about the products and services they can expect. It’s not always easy to come up with the amount of type of content that consumers are looking for. We can easily get stuck in a rut of doing the same thing. I read many, many emails from wineries presenting their products and in most of the missives I receive there is a sameness to the content.

One of the ways you can make your content different is to have the people who buy your wine and love your brand contribute by creating some of the content for you. Consumers tend to be more interested in hearing what other consumers think about products. According to Bazaar Voice, which specializes in user-generated content marketing, “64% of millennials and 53% of boomers want more options to share their opinions about brands.” Additional studies show that consumers are more likely to believe user-generated content more than other media.

Ask for information and testimonials from your customers and display the information on your website, in emails or through social media. Let potential customers know how your customers feel by using their own words through your marketing avenues.

Sign up for a monitoring service so you know when and where your products, company or key personnel in the company are mentioned. Then respond to the consumers who mentioned you.

Be ready to answer questions or complaints and keep track of all your social media so you know what is being said.

Use more pictures in your messaging to customers. Show pictures of your customers using your products and couple that with a blurb from the customer saying why they buy and use it. Visual content encourages consumers to purchase and brings them to the buying process much faster.

It’s important, too, that you are seen through different channels. According to Bazaar Voice “Consumers increasingly are moving back and forth among mobile, PC, tablet, and in-store experiences seamlessly during their shopping process. 73% used multiple channels during their shopping journey.”

Keep current and potential customers interested in your company and your products by keeping them involved in active as well as passive ways.

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I am hearing more talk these days about the importance of soft skills in the workplace, especially for those in supervisory capacities or those employees who deal with customers.

Hard skills are those that we are trained to perform. An example of a hard skill would be an accountant or a winemaker.

Soft sills tend to be harder to quantify. These are the skills that make individuals good at jobs in customer service, sales or in staff supervision. While it is important that owners and managers have soft skills it isn’t always the case.

Employees and managers with well-developed soft skills are adaptable and able to relate to different employees or customers with ease. These people will also be good communicators. They can vary their style of speech and tone of voice to suit the person to whom they are speaking. They are also intuitive, being able to understand people and being aware of facial expressions, tone of voice and stance that allows them to understand what the people they are speaking to may be thinking or feeling.

These types of personal qualities are a must for anyone who is dealing with the public or managing a staff. Being able to understand how the other person may be feeling or see a problem from the other side is a great help to those who work with customers, are part of a team or just want to get ahead in their chosen profession.

According to an article from Realityworks,

77% of employers think personality skills are just as important as hard skills.

44% think that Americans lack soft skills (500 executives surveyed)

46% of manager said young workers would do well to home their communication skills

35% reported lower-than-needed interpersonal and teamwork skills

In today’s world with the emphasis on customer service, the competition for sales and customer expectations honing our soft skills will make us more effective, efficient and more valuable in the workplace.